


Dr Jackson & Mr. Hyde

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-28
Updated: 2008-01-28
Packaged: 2018-12-17 17:18:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11856126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: Daniel is back from a mission, but something isn't right. Can Janet find the answer before it's too late?





	Dr Jackson & Mr. Hyde

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

Dr Jackson & Mr. Hyde   
by Panther

 

  
Janet came striding out of her office, lab coat on and stethoscope tucked in one   
pocket. The claxons had gone off barely a minute ago announcing the return of a team.   
According to her schedule it was most likely SG-10 with their borrowed archaeologist in   
tow. Keeping an ear tuned for the follow-up announcement ordering a medical team to   
the gate room, she was pleased to see the solders come wandering through the   
infirmary doors under their own steam. No catastrophes here. Also, oddly enough, no   
archaeologist.

Nearly a full minute later Daniel finally appeared in the doorway, quite a distance   
behind his temporarily adopted team. Janet glanced at him as he shuffled into the room   
and paused for a moment, penlight in hand, watching him. She was no stranger to the   
moods of Daniel Jackson. Over the past three years she had seen him in various stages   
of anxiety, a thousand instances of preoccupation and dozens of episodes of babbling   
excitement. That didn't include the times she had also encountered him feverish, in pain   
or worse by far, unconscious. So, with the benefit of countless post-mission   
examinations tucked away in her memory it was relatively easy to tell what condition he   
was in with nothing more than a glance. In the brief moment it took him to find an empty   
gurney and settle onto it she realized something wasn't right. 

The infirmary was short staffed that day and had only enough nurses to work on   
four team members at a time even with Janet helping out. That left Daniel sitting alone   
to wait his turn. Already occupied with SG-10's second in command, Janet had to settle   
for watching Daniel from a distance. Glancing at him around the shoulder of Captain   
Bliss who was currently sitting in front of her, Janet caught the familiar scowl on his face;   
an expression that could have meant a hundred different things. A second glance   
confirmed the fact that he was oddly quiet, especially for a man who had just spent the   
last few days living what should have been an archaeologist's dream. 

SG-10's last mission had been to play bodyguard to Daniel as he had inspected   
a cave with walls covered in writings they couldn't identify and packed with a sizeable   
collection of odd artifacts. The planet had been completely deserted so SG-10's job had   
been relatively easy, though more than a little boring. Janet had expected the team to   
come back impatient and slightly annoyed with each other. On the other hand, by her   
estimation Daniel should have been practically vibrating with excitement, talking non-  
stop about his newest discoveries. SG-10 fit her expectations to the letter. Daniel,   
however, was a different story. For whatever reason, he seemed off in his own universe   
and so far had yet to say a word.

Janet tucked the information away in a corner of her mind and did her best to   
focus on the Airman in front of her, all the while trying to decide if Daniel was quiet   
because he had no one to talk to or because he had nothing to say. One she could   
understand, the other was a very bad sign, especially when he should have been   
bubbling over with enthusiasm.

Several minutes passed as the examinations of the other men continued, Janet's   
attention absorbed by the task at hand until a brief conversation between Daniel and one   
of the nurses shifted it right back to the growing mystery sitting alone on a gurney.

"Dr. Jackson, where are you going?" A mildly impatient female voice asked, the   
sound bringing Janet's head around as she was attempting to inspect the back of   
Captain Bliss's throat.

"Just getting some paper. I'll be right back." Came the reply in a tone partly   
distracted and partly annoyed.

"Why don't you sit down? I'll get it for you." The nurse offered in a less offending   
manner.

Janet was almost content to let the exchange go on without her when Daniel   
spoke again. 

"I can get it." He replied, the annoyance much more obvious. “I said I'll be right   
back."

For a moment Janet stood silently scrutinizing him from across the room, her   
current patient nearly forgotten. In an instant she noted the tension in Daniel's body as   
he moved away from the gurney, the challenge in his tone, the way he looked at the   
nurse out of the corner of his eye and suddenly it all began to coalesce into a rather   
unpleasant picture. Combined with the almost sullen expression he'd been wearing   
when he had walked into the room it was becoming obvious that Daniel was a bit less   
than himself and that was never a good thing.

Not long ago she might have been tempted to push it aside and make excuses   
for his odd behavior without giving it a second thought. In fact, once upon a time such   
an exchange might not have even caught her attention, but things were different now.   
His terrifying bout with sarcophagus addiction was less than a year in the past, an event   
still too fresh in everyone's mind and they had all been watching him for signs of relapse   
ever since. 

For his part, Daniel had tried to be patient with it as they scrutinized his every   
move. After being under a microscope for so long she supposed she couldn't really   
blame him for being short tempered and irritable when something as simple as getting   
up to get a pen and some paper brought questions. Still, sullen moods were not normal   
for him. Unprovoked aggression wasn't his style. You had to really push Daniel to get a   
rise out of him. 

Janet stood for another moment watching him, trying to decide if his behavior   
indicated more than just average moodiness before gently putting the mystery aside one   
more time. Apologizing to her current patient, she hauled her focus back to Captain   
Bliss, a man who had had more than his share of waiting patiently lately. Janet   
reminded herself that it was probably best not to push the members of this team too far.   
Their tolerance for cooling their heels had already been stretched to the limit. Still,   
despite her best efforts to concentrate, she couldn’t help stealing occasional glances   
behind the Airman to check on Daniel. 

As promised he eventually found his way back to the gurney and was soon   
huddled over a legal pad, the pen moving across the page as fast as he could scribble.   
This was a Daniel she recognized and the official appearance of Preoccupied Dr.   
Jackson went a long way to quieting her suspicions. For that reason she didn't rush to   
finish Captain Bliss's examination, allowing herself a few minutes of hope that she had   
simply misread the signs, that there was really nothing wrong with Daniel. She was also   
silently praying that during those same few minutes he would take the opportunity to   
start acting a bit more like himself because the last thing she wanted was to find a real   
reason to keep him under observation. After all, things like that had to be reported to   
General Hammond and Daniel was already standing on fragile ground where the base’s   
CO was concerned. In fact, the only reason he was still a member of the program at all   
was because of Colonel O’Neill’s continued insistence that he was a valuable asset to   
his team, past offenses notwithstanding. 

Dismissing Captain Bliss and pulling on a fresh pair of latex gloves, Janet made   
her way over to Daniel to officially begin his physical.

“Come on, Daniel. Please.” She silently begged as she approached, making no   
attempt to muffle the clack of her shoes on the concrete floor. “Give me something to   
work with here.” 

Despite her less than stealthy approach, she still managed to catch him off   
guard, startling him when she spoke his name. Instantly his head came up and she   
watched as a flurry of emotions twitch across his face before it finally settled into the   
same nondescript scowl she'd seen there countless times before.

"Sorry about the wait." She offered cheerfully, pretending she hadn't been   
inspecting him from across the room for quite some time already.

"Can you, uh, just give me a minute?" He asked, holding up a finger and   
returning his attention to the page. "I just need to make a few notes."

"It looks like you already have." She replied, eyeing the collection of pages he'd   
filled and folded over to get to the fresh one underneath.

Daniel looked up at her in obvious confusion then back down at his already well   
used legal pad as if seeing it for the first time. In that moment Janet’s fragile wall of   
hope gave way and the flood of dread it had been holding back washed over her with   
enough force to have the hairs on the back of her neck bristling in horrible anticipation.   
Not too incredibly long ago that single act would have been chalked up to nothing more   
than the behavior of a sometimes absent-minded scientist. Now, however, it made her   
shudder with a sense of foreboding. As much as she hated to admit it, something was   
wrong. 

"I take it you had a good time on this one." She said casually, hiding behind a   
friendly smile as she slid the legal pad from his hands.

“What? Oh, uh, yeah. It was incredible.” Daniel replied removing his glasses as   
the all too familiar examination began. "There were writings all over the inside of the   
cave."

“Open.” She requested, tongue depressor at the ready. “Any aches or pains?”

“Uh uh.” He replied with his mouth still propped open.

“Headache?”

“No.”

“Your pulse is a little fast.” She announced, making a note in his chart. "How do   
you feel?"

“Fine.”

“Any nausea or dizziness?”

“No.”

Daniel reached up to swipe at his face and Janet caught a slight tremor in his   
hands, yet another symptom that could have been nothing, but was now part of a   
growing collection.

“How long has it been since you’ve eaten?” She asked.

“A while I guess. I don’t really remember.” He replied without concern.

“Take a deep breath for me.” She instructed, holding a stethoscope to his chest.   
“Again…Good…Lungs are clear.” She muttered, making more notes before continuing   
her inspection of him and taking a few vials of blood in the process. “Everything looks   
good.” She finally announced, content to keep her suspicions to herself, at least for the   
time being. 

He was showing no obvious signs of hostility and there were no entry scars   
anywhere so whatever had gotten to him it didn’t appear to be a goa’ould. Thank   
heaven for small favors. He also wasn’t insisting that he needed to get back through the   
gate, which had been a steady mantra with the sarcophagus addiction so that effectively   
ruled out one more possibility. Still, the dwindling list of known possibilities did nothing   
to ease the knot that had formed in her stomach. It was entirely possible he had   
managed to get himself into something they hadn’t encountered before. Unfortunately,   
with their exploration of the universe barely three years old there were still a lot of   
unknowns out there. Stumbling headlong into something she had never seen before   
was a common and often frustrating occurrence. A lot of unexplained symptoms with an   
equally unknown cause was not really what she needed right now. Neither did Daniel.   
Especially not with his already precarious position with the General.

“Go do your CT scan,” she instructed, “and then I want you to head up to the   
commissary and get some food.”

“Ok.” He nodded absently, hopping down from the bed and grabbing his notepad.

“I’m serious, Daniel.” She said, grabbing his arm, trying to break through his   
distracted air.

“I will.” He said, the scowl having returned as he quickly glanced from her face to   
the hand on his arm and back again.

Janet stared back at him and for a moment considered keeping him in the   
infirmary until the test results came back. She didn’t know what was going on with him   
yet, but visions of an addicted Daniel in the darkest stages of sarcophagus withdrawal   
kept coming to mind, specifically the sudden and completely unprovoked attacks on   
several base personnel. Pushing the memories aside with a heavy sigh, she finally   
released his arm. She had no real reason to hold him hostage, just a growing pile of   
suspicions and in her mind that wasn’t a good enough excuse to confine him to a   
gurney. 

Watching him stride determinedly away she decided that concrete reasons or   
not, she was going to make it a point to check on him at regular intervals for the next few   
days just to be safe. She was also going to have to warn Colonel O’Neill and suggest he   
leave Daniel off the roster for SG-1’s next mission, the one scheduled for 08:00   
tomorrow morning. She didn’t want to alert the General just yet, but she also wasn’t   
sure Daniel was really fit for duty.

In the meantime, she made a new entry in his chart, scribbled his name on the   
labels of the still slightly warm vials that held his blood, and requested a rush on the   
results. If he had gotten into something while on that planet she wanted to know about it   
sooner rather than later.

“Major Listman.” She called to the team leader who had just reappeared from his   
routine post mission CT scan. “Can I see you for a moment, in my office?”

 

XXXXX

Daniel emerged from the elevator hardly noticing the people around him as he   
headed for the commissary more on automatic pilot than conscious thought. Janet had   
ordered him to eat and he knew all too well what happened when you ignored her   
instructions. She either chewed you out or locked you in the infirmary, neither of which   
he was in the mood for. What he wanted was to get back to his lab and start going over   
the artifacts he had brought back from P17T85. Three crates of them. Not to mention   
getting back to his translation of the writings that had covered the cave walls, characters   
that had held his undivided attention for the past two days. 

First he had to transfer the images from video to hard copy, a frame by frame   
process that he expected to take the better part of a day. Then he could dive back into   
the painstaking task of attempting to decode a language he couldn't recall ever having   
seen before. Maybe he should catalog the artifacts first? Of course, he wouldn't really   
be able to tell what they were or how they had been used until he could translate the   
characters that covered them. 

The whirlwind of thoughts continued spinning through his mind, chasing each   
other back and forth across his brain until he found himself standing at the counter in the   
commissary with an empty tray in his hand and a slightly perplexed looking server   
staring back at him.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Daniel sputtered, blinking back at the man.

"I said, can I get you something or are you just window shopping?" The man   
repeated, giving Daniel a once over that reminded him very much of Janet, a similarity   
that instantly annoyed him.

He'd been getting that look a lot over the past…he had no idea how many   
months and it was beginning to wear on his nerves. It seemed nearly everyone on the   
base was holding their breath, watching and waiting for him to turn back into the addict   
he had briefly become. He understood their concern and in a way he couldn't blame   
them. After coming back from Shyla's planet he had been a monster: a violent,   
egomaniacal, insolent and downright dangerous creature. Or so they had told him. In   
all honesty, he remembered very little of what he had done, but the few snatches of   
memory he did have were still enough to color his cheeks with shame. 

However, it had been nearly a year. He was fine, completely normal, but even so   
every time he got angry, frustrated, or had the audacity to act like something other than   
a perfectly contented version of himself the looks would start, followed by the endless   
stream of "are you feeling alright?". He had been sent to see Janet so many times the   
mere thought of the infirmary made him cringe. Over the last several months he had   
learned to hide his frustration and annoyance by simply hiding himself. There wouldn’t   
be any suspicious looks, prying questions or orders to report to the infirmary if no one   
saw him. As a result he spent more time in the far corners of his office than he used to,   
even going so far as to actually close the door in an effort to buy a few more minutes of   
peace. The less he had to fake his moods the better because, to be perfectly honest, it   
was exhausting. It also left him feeling more isolated and alone than the hours on end   
he spent hiding in his office, but he wasn’t in the mood to get into that.

"Just give me a little of everything." Daniel mumbled.

He wasn't really hungry, but Janet had ordered him to eat so he intended to   
spend a few long moments picking at things on his tray before heading back to this lab   
to get to work. 

The man handed him a plate piled with food, still eyeing him suspiciously and   
Daniel shuffled away from the counter to the nearest empty table. Sighing heavily he   
settled in a chair wondering how long it would take before he could be in a bad mood   
without risking time in an isolation room. 

He paused for a moment, fork in hand, suddenly wondering at the frame of mind   
that seemed to be deteriorating by the minute. He had no real reason to be out of sorts.   
The mission had been great. SG-10 had stayed almost completely out of his way   
leaving him to work uninterrupted. The cave had been incredible and he currently had a   
lab full of enough artifacts and video images to keep him busy for weeks. What was   
there to be annoyed about? In all honesty he had no idea, but nevertheless the mood   
was pulling at him, dragging him down into a pit of anger and seemed to be inspiring a   
headache for company. Maybe Janet was right. Maybe he'd been too long without food.   
Or maybe he just needed sleep, after all, he couldn't remember the last time he'd closed   
his eyes. He wasn't willing to put off playing with his new artifacts for a nap, but he could   
certainly spare a few minutes to eat.

Determined that he'd found the answer to both his mood and the blossoming pain   
in his head, he made an attempt to eat before abandoning the nearly full plate and   
heading to his lab.

 

XXXXX

 

Janet sat staring at a report of Daniel’s blood work, not entirely surprised by what   
she saw and not remotely relieved by it either. His hormone levels were all over the   
place: some too high, some too low, none of them where they should have been. 

Her conversation with Major Listman hadn’t told her much of anything except that   
there hadn’t been a sarcophagus on the planet. Not that Daniel would have willingly   
crawled into it if there had been. He was just as determined to avoid a replay of that   
particular segment of his past as the rest of them were. 

According to Listman, Daniel had spent all of his time alone in a cave with   
nothing, but artifacts and walls covered with some kind of alien writing. How much he   
ate or slept the man couldn’t exactly say. Apparently they hadn’t been supervising him   
that closely. They had simply guarded the area and left him to his own devices. The   
brief interview hadn't given her much to work with, but despite the lack of information two   
things were certain: Daniel had gotten into something in that cave and Colonel O’Neill   
was going to have a fit. 

Picking up the phone she pushed the button to activate the intercom system and   
paged Daniel to the infirmary. It had been several hours since she’d seen him and after   
looking at his test results she wanted very much to examine him again, not to mention   
draw more blood to see if his body had managed to balance itself or was simply getting   
worse. 

Nearly twenty minutes had passed before she realized her page had been   
ignored. Janet highly doubted he had left the base, not with his head completely   
ensnared in the last mission. More than likely he was in his lab absorbed in what he was   
doing. At least that’s what she hoped was happening. Deciding to use a more   
aggressive approach, Janet again picked up the phone, this time she skipped the   
overhead page and called Colonel O’Neill.

 

XXXXX

 

Jack strode through the halls headed for Daniel’s office, working his way into an   
incredibly foul mood as he went. He had agreed to lend Daniel to SG-10 on one   
condition: they bring him back on time and in one piece because SG-1 had a mission of   
their own. In fact, they were scheduled to leave tomorrow morning. Now, however, it   
seemed they would be doing so without a certain archaeologist because what should   
have been a very simple mission seemed to have developed a very serious snag. 

Daniel needed a break. If it wasn't obvious to everyone else it was very clear to   
Jack. The man had been walking on eggshells for months trying to rebuild the   
confidence his brief bout of insanity had destroyed. Day in and day out he lived under   
the scrutinizing gaze of General Hammond, Janet Frasier and half the people on base   
who were certain he would mutate back into a raving maniac at any moment. Their   
confidence in him was shaky at best. Daniel's confidence in himself wasn't much better   
and the constant stress was starting to wear him down. Lately he was looking more than   
a little ragged around the edges: exhausted, frustrated, tense. 

P17T85 had sounded like the perfect opportunity to give him a much needed   
break. He would be off the base and away from the ever watchful and often times   
judgmental eyes around him. The planet was deserted or had appeared that way on   
SG-10's recon of the area so there was very little chance of a run in with something   
armed and dangerous. Daniel would get to play, Jack wouldn't have to spend days on   
end bored out of his mind as he stood guard, SG-1 would still be on schedule for their   
next mission and everyone would be happy. It had been a very simple plan, one that   
had apparently gone to hell sometime between the moment it was hatched and the   
moment Daniel had come back through the gate. 

According to Dr. Frasier, Daniel was in less than peak condition. Exactly how   
bad “less than peak” was he was about to find out. All he knew was the tests had come   
back a bit off and Daniel had ignored her request to return to the infirmary. So far things   
didn't sound so bad, but it was hard to tell without actually looking Daniel in the face.   
Janet was concerned, but not yet worried so there was still room for hope. 

“Alright Daniel, what’s going on?” he announced stepping into the cluttered lab   
Daniel tended to call home only to find the place filled with even more crud than usual.

There was a pile of notebooks and videotapes stacked haphazardly on the edge   
of the table near an equally haphazard pile of books. Three large, plastic crates   
occupied a section of the floor blocking his path around the far end of the worktable.   
The computer was on, but showed him nothing more than a gaggle of dancing Egyptians   
shimmying their way across the screen, indicating that the machine had been sitting idle   
for some time. The rest of the room displayed the normal organized clutter, but revealed   
a distinct lack of the man Jack had come to see. 

He picked up a dusty trinket from one of the bookshelves with only mild interest   
as he continued to survey the room. Sighing to himself, Jack mused that it was probably   
just as well Janet wasn’t planning to release Daniel in time for tomorrow’s mission. It   
would have been no easy task to convince him to leave his new toys behind and tend to   
something else, especially when it seemed he was collecting enough material to settle in   
for the duration. Putting the artifact back on the shelf in the vicinity of where he'd found   
it, Jack turned and headed for the door intending to check Daniel's office before calling in   
the rest of the team for a quiet search of the base. 

A grunt from the far side of the table stopped him in mid stride.

“Daniel?" He called, attempting to see around the cluttered table. "If you're trying   
to hide from Frasier I'd pick a less obvious place. ….” He began seconds before spotting   
him sitting on the floor, head in his hands. “Aw hell.” Jack growled, his attempt at humor   
vanishing as he snatched the phone from its cradle to call for help. 

As far as he was concerned there was no need for details or to waste time asking   
useless questions about what had happened. He’d been around Daniel long enough to   
know what he looked like in pain and judging by the grip he had on his head and the odd   
way he was gasping for air he was in a lot of it. How he'd gotten that way didn't matter   
at the moment.

“Hang on, Daniel. Help’s on the way.” He offered, huddled beside him, a   
comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Jack, I’m going to…” he began in a strained voice before his body convulsed   
and he gagged.

“Easy, Daniel.” Jack soothed, checking the urge to take a step back. “Why don’t   
you lie down.”

“Where’s Janet?” he groaned.

“She’ll be here.” He said, already hearing the clatter of the medical team coming   
down the hall. “Just hang on.” Seconds later the woman appeared in the room with a   
gurney and a small collection of her crew.

“What happened?” she asked, pushing past Jack.

“I don’t know. I found him like this.” He replied, getting to his feet and stepping   
out of the way.

“Daniel, can you hear me?” She asked, to which he nodded.

“It hurts.” He volunteered quietly from where he lay curled up on the floor, his   
chin tucked to his chest, head between his hands.

“When did this start?” she asked, taking his pulse, finding it strong, but very fast.

“I don’t know. Just make it stop.”

“I will.” She assured him. “Let’s get him out of here.” She ordered.

Carefully they helped him to his feet and onto the gurney, Daniel immediately   
folding into a ball as they whisked him out into the hall and back toward the infirmary.   
Janet steered the group to an isolation room and began spouting orders before the   
gurney had pulled to a halt.

“Let's get some oxygen started. I want a BP and a blood draw. You still with me,   
Daniel?” she asked the man curled up on his side, an arm wrapped around his head and   
received a slight nod in response. “I need to get a look at you, ok? Just let me move this   
arm.” She said, pulling his hand away from his head. “Can you open your eyes for me?”   
Slowly two blue, bloodshot orbs peeked out at her, Daniel wincing at the light. “When   
did this start?” she asked again as one of the nurses captured Daniel's free arm and   
wrapped a blood pressure cuff around it.

“A while ago.” He said, swallowing. “It’s getting worse.”

“Give me two mils of Morphine.” She ordered knowing it wouldn’t be enough to   
completely silence his pain, but would at least turn it down a notch. In the meantime,   
they hooked him up to a steady supply of oxygen; clear plastic tubing winding its way   
across his face and around his ears.

"BP is 230 over 120." The nurse announced.

Janet waited to continue her examination until the drugs had had a chance to   
calm him a little and the determined scowl on his face had lessened to a mere creasing   
of his brow. It was the best she was going to get from the low dosage, but didn’t want to   
give him more until she knew what she was dealing with. For the moment she needed   
him lucid. As the drug took effect his pulse slowed a measure and his breathing became   
less strained.

“Feeling better?” she asked.

“A little.” He nodded.

“How did this start?”

“Just a normal headache. I took a few aspirin, but it kept getting worse.”

“How long ago?” she asked yet again, trying to determine how long it had taken   
him to go from slightly wired to in tremendous pain.

“I don’t know.” He breathed. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

"Did you have a headache when you left here earlier?"

"No."

“Well your blood pressure is through the ceiling. That could explain it. Your   
initial blood work came back a little off.” She informed him. “That could have something   
to do with it as well. We’re going to redraw it and then do another CT scan.”

Daniel nodded at her, the scowl on his face increasing once again.

“Have you ever had trouble with migraines?” she asked.

“No.”

"198 over 115, Doctor." The nurse broadcast.

“That's still high.” Janet replied. "Let me check your pupils.” She said, noting that   
he was no longer squinting from the light in the room. Breaking out the penlight she   
flashed it quickly into his eyes watching them react before he jerked his head away.

“Does that hurt?”

“A bit.” He admitted having returned to squinting, his respiration increasing.

“What’s going on, Daniel?” She asked, stuffing the light back into her pocket,   
watching with obvious concern as he returned to gasping for air.

“It’s getting worse.”

“Just try to relax.” She offered, patting his arm. “Let’s get a new CT.” She said to   
the small group of her staff hovering around the bed. Disengaging the brakes on the   
gurney, they rolling him back out of the room.

For the second time that day Daniel found himself stretched out on the padded   
table of the scanner. With a slight jerk it slowly pulled him into the machine, a cramped   
tunnel barely big enough to hold him. After dozens of sessions in the contraption he had   
gotten over the claustrophobic feeling of having a mere six inches between himself and   
the walls of the scanner long ago. Closing his eyes he listened to the telltale clicks and   
hums that signaled that the machine was working. However, he found no comfort in it.   
It wasn’t going to make the pain that was steadily increasing in his head stop. It wasn’t   
going to put him to sleep. It wasn’t going to do anything but take more pictures to   
compare with the pictures they had taken only hours ago; ones that had obviously   
shown nothing out of the ordinary. 

With the procedure barely started, the pain in his head suddenly spiked and he   
attempted to stuff his hands into the cramped space to grip his head. Unfortunately   
there wasn't room. For a moment he considered wiggling back out of the machine, but   
Janet wanted more pictures, as useless as they might be, so he tried to be still.   
However, even the soft noises of the scanner seemed incredibly loud, rumbling through   
his head, crashing against his skull.

“Daniel, I need you to hold still.” Janet’s voice instructed over the intercom.

“Get me out of here.” He said, uncertain if she had heard him, his voice muffled   
by the scanner.

“Just try to relax. Only a few more minutes.” She said.

“I can’t.” He complained, attempting to roll over and getting nowhere.

“Take it easy, Daniel.” Janet said, this time her voice much closer, a hand   
suddenly on his leg.

“Get me out. Please.” He groaned, the pounding in his head threatening to crack   
his skull.

“Ok. We’re getting you out.” She soothed.

“Why aren't you doing anything to stop it?" He groused as he slid free of the   
machine, once again pulling himself into a tight ball, suddenly completely annoyed with   
her ineffectual attempts to get his headache under control. "Forget the scan, just give me   
something."

"I can't help you until I find out what's causing the pain." She explained patiently.  
"So I’m just supposed to lie here with my head about to explode until you finally   
figure it out?" He replied. "Great."

"I know you're in pain, Daniel, but you need to work with me."

"You don't know anything." He snarled.

“Just calm down.” She replied.

“I'll calm down when you make it stop!” he bellowed, grimacing at the pain the   
sound inflicted.

"Daniel, this isn't helping." She warned. 

"You listen to me, Doctor." He spat. "Either fix it or find me someone who can."

"Get me security." She said calmly to the nurse standing nearby, though he could   
see the hint of fear in her eyes. "Daniel, I want you to listen to me. You're not well.   
Something is wrong and I'm going to do my best to fix it, but you need to calm down or   
I'll have to restrain you." She said, meeting his malevolent stare. "Do you understand?"

"No, you won't." He threatened, hands moving from his head to undo the single   
and quite useless strap around his middle. Obviously things were about to go from bad   
to worse. What he needed was to get away from her and find a quiet, dark place to curl   
up for a few hours. Maybe the pain would stop on its own. One thing was certain; she   
was going to tie him down over his dead body.

"Daniel, you don't really want this." She said, keeping her eyes on him as the   
door behind her opened again and two security guards stepped into the room. “Think   
about what you’re doing.”

"Everything ok in here, Doc?" One of them asked.

"Not entirely." She admitted. "Somebody get me a gurney." The cramped room   
became even more crowded as the portable bed was rolled in. "Go ahead and transfer   
him, carefully, and then strap him down."

"Stay away from me!" Daniel demanded, sliding off the far side of the scanner's   
table on unsteady legs. She wasn't going to restrain him. Not again. He shuddered at   
the memory of the last time she'd seen fit to tie him to the bed, days on end in a tiny   
room attempting to recover from madness while the restraints threatened to plunge him   
right back into it.

"Take it easy, Dr. Jackson." One of the security guards soothed as they   
approached, backing him into a corner.

There was no way out and Daniel knew it. The only door to the room was behind   
Janet and with two guards, an orderly and a nurse standing between him and escape his   
odds of getting away were slim at best. He tried to calm down, to quell the anger boiling   
inside, but one look at the straps hanging lifelessly from the gurney and the panic took   
control. Backed against the far wall, Daniel lunged at the closest guard, hurling himself   
at the large man and managing to push him back a step only to have the second guard   
grab hold of his arm and pull Daniel securely into his grasp. Kicking and struggling he   
fought without success to free himself, not caring about the pain in his head as they   
dragged him toward the gurney.

"No!" He shrieked.

"I'm sorry, Daniel, but you've left me no choice."

"Let me go." He growled, still thrashing in the grip of the guards as they laid him   
on the bed and held him down, the nurse and orderly securing him to the frame. “Damn   
it!” he bellowed. “Get these things off me.”

“Dr. Jackson,” Janet said in her best authoritative tone, standing as near to him   
as she dared while he tugged at the restraints “You need to settle down. This is only   
going to make things worse.”

“I don’t need to settle down." He snarled through clenched teeth. "I need you to   
let me go.”

"We both know I'm not going to do that."

Daniel howled and lunged at her to the best of his ability, managing to make her   
take a step back.

“Let’s sedate him.” She said almost reluctantly, sending one of the nurses out of   
the room for a syringe.

“I don’t need a sedative.” He protested. “Just get me the hell out of these things.”

“I’m afraid not.” She said. 

"Let me go." He snarled.

"No." she said simply.

Daniel began jerking at the restraints again in a useless attempt to free himself,   
the gurney shifting and shuddering as he moved. It was over. She had won and as   
soon as the nurse returned with the sedative his fate would be sealed and he'd be   
trapped in restraints until she decided to let him go. The prospect of being there for   
hours, maybe even days sent him into a rage. He didn't care if he was acting like a   
maniac. She couldn't keep him tied up like this. 

Janet watched as Daniel's struggling shifted into high gear, anger and obvious   
fear in his eyes, twisting his face into a murderous glare. She'd seen this behavior   
before and the sight of it made her blood run cold. How could this have happened?   
He'd been fine for months now, everything normal and suddenly the monster had   
returned. It wasn't possible that his sarcophagus withdrawal had mysteriously returned   
on its own no matter how it might look. Something else had happened. Some other   
substance that had the ability to twist his mind and alter his behavior had somehow   
found its way into his system. Most likely something he'd picked up in the cave. As she   
watched him straining against the straps it was a minor comfort to note that none of the   
other members of SG-10 had been affected. At least not yet. Making a mental note to   
recheck them all, she gratefully accepted the syringe from the nurse who came striding   
through the door. Instructing the guards to hold him still and doing her best to tune out   
Daniel's last minute pleas, she injected the sedative into the first vein she could find and   
stepped back to let it do its work.

"Put him back on the scanner." She instructed when he had finally lost   
consciousness. "Let's finish this."

XXXXXX

Janet was not remotely surprised to find Jack waiting in the hall when they finally   
returned the still unconscious Daniel to the isolation room. 

"What happened?" he asked, nodding toward the well restrained man as they   
wheeled past him.

"I had to sedate him." Janet sighed, a hand on her hip. "He got a little out of   
hand."

"Do we know what he's got?"

"Not yet." She admitted leading him into the room. "His hormone levels were all   
over the chart on the first blood draw. Something has his system all out of whack."

"Sarcophagus withdrawal again?" He suggested, glancing in obvious concern at   
Daniel.

"I don't think so, Sir. That was months ago and he's shown no symptoms until   
now. I'm willing to bet it's something else."

"Like…?"

"I have no idea." She said. "Major Listman wasn't with him in the cave so he can't   
tell me if he was exhibiting any strange behavior while they were off world, but he was   
perfectly fine when he left here two days ago. Since the other members of SG-10 seem   
to be unaffected it would be my guess he was exposed to something in that cave.   
Considering the fact that he was in there for 48 hours straight we can assume it was   
prolonged exposure."

"Great." Jack groused.

"Until I find out what it is I'm afraid I can't clear him for active duty, Sir. As of now   
I’m officially putting him on medical leave, confined to the base." 

 

XXXXXX

Daniel woke to the familiar sounds of the infirmary, the room slowly swimming   
into view. Several parts of his body ached, but to his relief none of them were his head.   
Attempting to roll over he found himself strapped securely to the gurney and suddenly he   
was very much awake. The first hint of panic fluttered through him, the steady chiming   
of the heart monitor near his head picking up speed to broadcast the pounding of his   
heart. Struggling to remain calm, he tried to remember what had happened, but   
everything was a haze. The last thing he could clearly recall was being on the floor in   
his lab, drowning in a rising tide of pain and Jack telling him help was on the way.   
Obviously something had happened to inspire Janet to strap him to the bed. The few   
very unpleasant scenes he could recall from the last time she had seen fit to restrain him   
pushed themselves into the vacant space in his memory, dragging a twisted ball of   
anxiety and shame behind them. A cold fear settled over him at the thought of what he   
might have done. 

The familiar sound of Janet's shoes clacking on the concrete floor drew his   
attention and he pulled against his restraints, straining to see the door.

"Janet?" He called, hearing the frantic tone of his own voice.

"Hello Daniel." She greeted calmly, striding into the room. "How are you feeling?"

The professionally detached tone of voice made his stomach twist. What had he   
done?

"What happened?" He asked ignoring her question.

"I had to sedate you." She replied. "How do you feel?"

"Fine, I guess. Why am I in restraints?"

"You don't remember?"

"No." He swallowed, shivering with emotion. "What did I do?" He asked, his voice   
tight, afraid to hear the answer.

"Nothing." She said, her tone finally softening, a reassuring smile warming her   
features. "You were a bit out of control during the CT scan. I sedated you before you   
had a chance to hurt yourself…or anyone else. Everything's fine."

Daniel settled back against the mattress, relief warring with his rising sense of   
panic at being tied down, the combination threatening to inspire tears.

"How's your head?" She asked.

"Fine."

"No headache?"

"No."

"Your second set of blood work came back pretty much like the first. Your   
hormone levels were still all over the place. I want to run it one more time now that   
you're feeling better and see how things look."

"Can you undo these?" He asked, lifting one arm off the bed the scant inch the   
restraints would allow.

"I know you hate being strapped down, but I think it would be better to leave them   
on a little longer." Janet said, a hand on his shoulder. "Just to be safe."

"Please?"

"I'm sorry, Daniel." She shook her head. 

His stomach contorted at the realization that it could be some time before she let   
him go. He tried telling himself that if he had been dangerous enough to restrain in the   
first place it was probably a good idea to leave him that way for a while. At least until   
she was sure he was back to normal. It made sense. Still his palms were sweating by   
the time she returned to draw more blood. 

Janet sighed to herself as she left the room with her now full vials in hand. She   
hated leaving him like that, his quiet pleas to be released still echoing in her head.   
Daniel had a big problem being tied down, one she was well aware of. Even a single   
tether on one limb made him anxious. Five-point restraints holding him securely to the   
bed were almost more than he could take. Despite the large space and bright lights of   
the room he felt claustrophobic. He would have trouble breathing, certain the walls were   
closing in around him, threatening to smother him as he lay helpless on the gurney.

His fear of being tied down had apparently started when he was a child, a   
confession he'd made once to Colonel O'Neill who had passed the information on to her   
when they were trying to decide how best to treat his sarcophagus addiction. It was the   
result of a horrific afternoon in one of his first foster homes; several hours spent tied to a   
chair in the garage with a dead rat settled in his lap as part of a prank played by another   
child. It had traumatized the already traumatized boy he had been to the point where   
even thirty years later he still couldn't stand to be restrained. 

By the time Janet returned with the test results barely thirty minutes later he was   
a bundle of nerves, eyes wide, head jerking toward every sound, his entire body bathed   
in sweat, barely hanging on to control of the growing fear.

"I'm sorry to leave you in these for so long." Janet offered when she finally   
reappeared, his chart in hand. "Everything looks back to normal. How are you feeling?"

"Please, get me out of these." He begged.

"Alright. Just relax. I'll have you out in a minute." She soothed putting the chart   
aside and moving to unfasten the first restraint on one of his ankles, Daniel jerking   
involuntarily when she rested a hand on his leg. "Tell me about the cave on P17T85."   
She said, attempting to distract him. "Major Listman said you were in there for two days   
without a break. It must have been fascinating."

"It was." Daniel nodded quickly, swallowing as he stared at the ceiling, heart   
pounding in his chest. "There were, uh, pictographs and, um, hi…hieroglyphs all over the   
walls and ceiling. Like they had been-been using it for, um, gen-generations." He   
stammered.

"Any idea what they used it for?" she asked, moving to his other ankle, Daniel   
immediately lifting his freed leg away from the bed, resting the sole of his foot against   
the mattress.

"Not yet." He admitted. "Maybe a, uh, sacred meeting place. Maybe, um, for   
some type of-of ritual. I f-found a few artifacts, but I, uh, haven't been able to go th-  
through them yet."

One by one Janet removed his restraints as she continued to ask him questions   
in the hopes of leading his thoughts away from the fog of panic he'd been steadily   
sinking into for the past hour. Daniel stuttered and twitched his way through an   
explanation, still too wound up to be anything other than a mildly relaxed state of frantic.   
Janet had wanted to give him oxygen, but had reconsidered knowing the sensation of   
the tubing winding its way around his face would only make him worse. She had hated   
to leave him tied up for so long when it was pure torture for him, but had been unwilling   
to turn him loose until she was absolutely certain he was back to normal. Even sedating   
him to make the ordeal easier had been out of the question because she needed him   
conscious to monitor his behavior. Unfortunately, no matter how much both of them had   
hated it, Janet hadn't had much choice.

General Hammond was less than pleased with his aggressive behavior, coming   
so soon after the nightmare of his sarcophagus withdrawal. He had wanted Daniel   
confined to a cell in lock up as a precaution, but Janet had talked him out of it with a   
promise that Daniel would remain in five-point restraints until she was certain he was   
under control. 

Freed from his tethers she watched him curl into a ball on the gurney, knees   
pulled to his chest, arms tucked tightly to his body.

"I want you to stay here for a few hours to make sure the headache is really gone   
before I release you." She said, covering him with a blanket. "You just rest." She   
advised, briefly stroking his long, damp hair, struggling against the urge to hug the   
traumatized man. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Thank you." He replied quietly, eyes slightly glazed.

With a sigh Janet retrieved his chart and strode back out of the room toward the   
main infirmary, nodding to the guard posted outside Daniel's door.

 

XXXXX

Daniel sat hunched over his worktable thumbing through the pages of his fourth   
and final notebook from the mission to P87T15. Janet had released him hours ago and   
he had immediately headed to his lab unconcerned with the knowledge that until further   
notice he was confined to the SGC. He hadn't been planning to go anywhere anyway. 

It was late. He didn't need to look at his watch to confirm it, but for the moment   
he didn't care. The rest of SG-1 was scheduled for a mission bright and early the next   
morning, however, he was still on leave, which meant he wouldn't be going with them.   
With that in mind he saw little reason to worry about sleep. He was much more   
interested in going over the artifacts from the mission than staring at the uninspiring   
walls of his temporary quarters; not to mention being desperate to replace the memory   
of the torture session in the infirmary with something much more pleasant. If pressed he   
would have reluctantly admitted to being tired. Despite the nap he'd had in the infirmary   
after Janet had untied him he was still riding the edge of exhaustion. Nevertheless,   
thoughts of the cave and the artifacts he'd brought back had been taunting him for hours   
and he wanted to make at least minor headway with them before he called it a day.   
Coffee would see him through for a little while longer. Opening the first crate of   
treasures, he promised himself he would be in bed before dawn.

Daniel paid no attention to the clock as he determinedly buried himself in his   
work, allowing the mystery of the cave to envelop him completely. He was halfway   
through the second crate of artifacts when Jack appeared in his lab.

"Tell me you're just up really early this morning." Jack said, wandering into the   
room and glancing at the collection of trinkets scattered across Daniel's worktable. 

"What? Oh, hi Jack." Daniel said distractedly. "You're here a bit late, aren't you?"

"No, I think the word you're looking for is 'early'." Jack replied.

"What?"

"It's 06:30, as in after sunrise. The start of a brand new day."

"Really?" Daniel tore his attention away from his work long enough to glance at   
his watch.

"Really." Jack echoed. "So, did Janet clear you for duty yet?"

"Not yet. Probably today."

"Ah. Well I suppose it's just as well you're not coming with us seeing as how you   
haven't slept in days." 

"I'm fine, Jack."

"Sure you are. Have you looked at yourself in a mirror lately?"

"Can't say I have." Daniel replied, returning his attention to the artifacts.

"Let me put it this way…get some sleep! Frasier's going to take one look at you   
and tie you to the nearest cot."

The phrase made Daniel shudder, his head coming up instantly.

"What?" Jack asked.

"Nothing. Look, I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine. I just want to finish this   
one thing and then I'll take a break."

"No, you're going to start packing it up now and be in bed in thirty." Jack   
corrected.

"Come on, Jack."

"Daniel, that's an order." He said pleasantly. "Thirty minutes." He added, tapping   
his watch before strolling casually back out of the room.

Daniel glared at the empty doorway for a moment before beginning to reluctantly   
pack the artifacts away again. He wasn't in the mood to sleep. Despite the scant   
amount he'd gotten over the last several days he felt fine. Apparently he'd gotten his   
second wind or maybe it was his third. Whatever it was he was wide awake and ready   
to go. Grumbling to himself, Daniel brushed at his clothes and swept off his worktable.   
Several of the artifacts had been covered with a fine, gray powder; the same powder   
he'd found in one corner of the cave floor. Soot and ash left over from years of fires. He   
was going to have to clean them off a little before he worked with that particular box   
again or he would have a lab covered with ash. 

Adding it to his list of things to do, Daniel grabbed his notebooks and headed for   
his quarters. Jack might be able to order him to bed like a disobedient child, but he   
couldn't make him sleep. He'd read over his notes and maybe take another crack at   
translating the hieroglyphs before he finally called it a day.

XXXXX

Daniel woke in the dim light of his quarters unable to remember the exact point   
when he'd fallen asleep. Head resting on an open notebook he sat up and rubbed at his   
temples, trying to massage away the headache that had prodded him awake. Chalking   
it up to knotted muscles from sleeping face down on the table for too long he rubbed at   
his neck as he shuffled over to the bed. Without bothering to change out of his clothes   
or even climb under the blankets he poured himself onto the mattress and burrowed into   
the pillow with the intention of drifting back to sleep. He managed to doze for several   
minutes, but his headache was determined not to be ignored. Reluctantly dragging   
himself from the bed Daniel shuffled to the dresser and unearthed his ever present bottle   
of ibuprofen, downing three pills with the cold remains from his coffee mug. Grimacing   
at the taste, he completed the circuit back to bed and settled in to wait for the drugs to   
take effect. However, despite the pills and his oppressive exhaustion the headache   
managed to keep him from sleep, the drugs having very little effect on what, over the   
next 30 minutes, became a grinding pain in his head. 

Tossing and turning on the mattress Daniel finally resorted to squeezing his head   
between his hands in a futile effort to find relief. Squinting at the dim light in his room   
that suddenly seemed far too bright, he tried to climb out of bed with the intention of   
shuffling his way to the infirmary before his head exploded, but standing up only seemed   
to make it worse. Sliding to the floor beside his bed, Daniel reluctantly reached for the   
phone with a trembling hand and called the base operator. He hated to think what the   
phone call was about to lead to, but the pain in his head was unbearable. 

"I need a medical team to, uh, 28 West. Dr. Jackson's quarters." He said,   
swallowing convulsively as a wave of nausea washed over him. "And hurry." 

 

XXXXX

 

Janet took a sip from her cup of still very warm coffee and surveyed the small   
collection of notes on her desk from the night shift. Apparently it had been a quiet night,   
something she was always glad to hear. Setting the cup aside she pulled her lab coat   
from its hook near her office door and began gathering a list of things to do from the   
corners of her mind as she slid into it, officially ready to start another day.

"Medical team to 28-7." The intercom blared, interrupting her thoughts. "Medical   
team to 2-8-7."

In a heartbeat all other thoughts were pushed aside as she bolted from her office.   
There was no need to tell her to hurry. Any request for a medical team was always   
treated as a dire emergency.

"Let's go people!" she called unnecessarily to the small group that had already   
gathered. 

Grabbing the gurney that was always kept at the ready by the main infirmary   
doors, they headed for the elevators. A Private, whose official title was "orderly" when   
he was on duty, adjusted the gurney into a full sitting position to fit it in the elevator as   
they waited for the car to arrive. While precious seconds ticked away, Janet tried to   
quell her frustration with the delay by attempting to figure out what type of medical   
emergency would have her headed down to one of the temporary quarters at barely   
08:00 hours. 

"Anybody know who's in 28-7?" she asked.

"No idea." The young Private Bailey admitted.

"Is that Teal'c's quarters?" Janet's second orderly asked, a Captain named   
Leavers.

"No. Besides, SG-1 left on a mission an hour ago." Private Bailey replied as the   
doors finally opened and they pushed inside squashing a soldier against the far wall of   
the car.

"It's Dr. Jackson's quarters…isn't it?" The lone nurse said. "I mean, I thought that   
was the room he was assigned to while he's on medical leave."

"Is it?" Janet asked, curiosity turning to alarm.

"I could swear I remembered hearing that somewhere." She added a slight blush   
rising on her cheeks. "I could be wrong."

Janet agreed, she could have been wrong, but most likely wasn't. It was a well   
known fact that Nurse Adams had a crush on Dr. Jackson, though the woman liked to   
think no one knew. Any and every bit of available information regarding Daniel was   
tucked away in her brain to the point where she was very nearly the base authority on   
the archaeologist. If she thought he was staying in that particular room, he probably   
was. 

"Damn it." Janet grumbled to herself. "The minute we get off the elevator I want   
you to have security paged to Daniel's room." She instructed Nurse Adams. "It's possible   
he's going to be a little difficult to deal with." She warned the orderlies. "Watch   
yourselves. I don't want any one hurt, including him."

The doors opened on sub-level 28 and the group flew out, racing toward room 7.   
Janet had no idea what to expect, but when they reached Daniel's room they found a   
distinct lack of drama, the door closed and no one around. Briefly considering the option   
of simply barging in, Janet instead knocked forcefully.

"In here." Replied a muffled voice followed by a whimpered groan.

Janet immediately opened the door and stepped inside the dimly lit room to find   
nothing out of the ordinary.

"Daniel?" She called a second before catching a glimpse of him on the floor   
beside the bed. "Over here." She added to her team of two, Adams on the phone down   
the hall.

"Security to 2-8-7." Blared from the overhead speakers.

"What happened?" Janet asked, instantly at his side, ignoring the announcement   
for security.

"It hurts." Daniel groaned, head in his hands and his body curled into a tight ball.

"Ok. Everything's going to be alright, just try to relax." Janet soothed. "Let's get   
him out of here." She added to the orderlies who had already collapsed the gurney to the   
floor. "Daniel, can you stand up?" She asked, a hand rested on his shoulder.

"No." He gasped, his voice strained.

"Can you two move him?"

"No problem." The larger of the two orderlies replied confidently as Janet stepped   
out of the way to give them access to the man who now lay panting on the floor. 

With practiced coordination, they gently lifted him onto the gurney, extending the   
legs to their normal height and pushed him back out into the hall. Turning in the   
direction of the elevators they headed back the way they had come and once again   
adjusted the gurney into a full sitting position to fit in the car. Daniel remaining curled up   
on the lower half panting and groaning quietly, Janet doing her best to assess him as   
they moved, listening to his strong, steady heartbeat and checking his very rapid pulse.   
He was sweating, his skin warm, strands of hair plastered to his face and his eyes shut   
tight. 

"Isolation Three." Janet instructed as the elevator doors opened allowing the   
group to escape. "Daniel, can you hear me?" She asked as they strode at a near run to   
the far end of the infirmary; his only reply a slight twitch of his head.

"Let's get him some oxygen and I want an IV." She instructed as they entered the   
room and pulled up to the gurney already in place. "I want to recheck his hormone levels   
and draw a couple of extra vials for a tox screen."

The group hustled around her, transferring Daniel to the other gurney and   
immediately beginning work on him, a difficult task when he refused to let go of his head.   
Still curled on his side Janet attempted to coax him into a position a little less difficult to   
work with, one that allowed them at least one free arm.

"It hurts." He complained.

"I know." She replied gently. "Just hang in there for a few more minutes until I get   
this blood drawn. Then I'll give you something."

"I can't." He panted.

"When did this start?" She asked.

"I don't know." He replied as Nurse Adams wound the oxygen tubing around his   
face. "I was asleep. It hurt. Then it got worse."

"Did you take anything?"

"Ibuprofen." He admitted. "Didn't help."

"How many?"

"Three."

"Anything else?"

"No. Nnng." He groaned. "Janet."

"I know. Just hold on. Where are those vials?" She demanded.

He twitched when another of her nurses stuck him with a needle to set up the IV.   
Janet took care of drawing his blood herself, capturing his arm in a rubber tourniquet   
before filling vial after vial and plotting a treatment plan as she worked. 

There was no point in putting him through another CT scan when the last two   
had shown nothing out of the ordinary. She fully expected his blood work to come back   
the same way it had the last time he'd been through this: hormones all over the place   
and nothing where it should be. This time she was adding a toxicity screen to check for   
anything abnormal in his system. Anything that might explain the return of a headache   
she had thought was under control. 

It was a known fact that Daniel had mild recurring headaches. The   
documentation was all over his charts. However, migraines were something new. It was   
always possible he had simply started to develop the often crippling pain, but migraines   
didn't usually come with the kind of blood work she had been seeing. The only good   
point she could come up with was that at least his behavior was still relatively normal.   
The reassurance, however, was short lived.

She had just attached the last vial to the needle in his arm when Daniel's eyes   
finally opened, thin blue slits peering at her from behind a grimace of pain.

"Almost done." She assured him.

"No, you're done now." He growled quietly, grabbing her hand and yanking the   
needle from his arm.

"Daniel." She warned.

"Stop playing games and give me something." He demanded, his voice tight.

"Let go of my hand." She said calmly, his grip on her firm.

"Give me something, now!" he bellowed attracting the attention of the two   
security guards who had followed them from level 28.

"I am not going to give you anything until you calm down. Now let go of my   
hand." She demanded, her voice quiet, but firm.

"Then I'll get it myself." He retorted with an ugly smirk, releasing her hand as he   
shoved her back from the gurney and swung his legs over the side.

"You're not going anywhere, Dr. Jackson." Janet advised motioning to the guards   
who immediately strode toward the gurney.

Daniel paused part way off the bed, groaning with a hand pressed to his   
forehead and his face worked into a tight grimace of pain. "Get out of my way." He   
growled when the wave had finally passed, panting for air as he glared at her once   
again.

The guards stood on either side of Janet, intentionally crowding her as she   
glared back at him. A sudden trickle of blood from one side of Daniel's nose caught her   
attention followed seconds later by another from the opposite nostril, flowing around the   
oxygen tubing. 

"Daniel, listen to me. You need help." She said, softening her tone. "I can make   
the pain stop, but only if you cooperate."

"You're not helping." He complained. "You're just stabbing me with needles. How   
is that supposed to make it stop?"

"I need to run tests to find out what is causing it." She explained struggling to be   
patient with him, reminding herself this was not the real Daniel. 

"I don't care." He growled. "Now get out of my way."

He tore the oxygen tubing from his face, smearing blood across his lip, and made   
a move to slide the rest of the way off the gurney only to be met by the guards who   
grabbed his arms and immediately shoved him right back onto it. Struggling and   
growling as the trickle of blood from his nose turned to a steady flow, he fought to free   
himself, but was completely overpowered when the orderlies joined in. Within minutes   
they had him strapped to the gurney, tethered securely by his ankles and wrists with a   
strap running across his middle.

"Get me some two-by-two's and an ice pack." Janet ordered immediately getting   
back to business. "And draw five mils of Morphine. Thanks, guys." She added to the   
guards. "I'll need to have a detail posted by his door until further notice."

"Kind of figured." One of them replied as they returned to the place they had   
been occupying just inside the door; out of the way, but not out of sight.

Tearing open the packages of two inch by two inch square gauze that arrived at   
her request Janet began trying to stem the flow of blood from Daniel's nose.

"Draw another vial." She requested as she pinched the gauze to his nose. "And   
then get the set to the lab. I want to get started on that tox screen. Jamison, will you   
come over here and hold his head still?" She asked, Daniel trying to shake her hands   
from his face as he continued to glare at her. "You're not doing yourself any good like   
this, Dr. Jackson." She quietly advised him as she layered more gauze over the pads   
now soaked through with blood. "Anger is only going to raise your blood pressure which   
will make this bleed more so just settle down. Take a couple of deep breaths."

"I don't care about my nose." He growled, his voice muffled by the gauze.   
"Fix…my damn head." He ordered, grimacing as the pain stabbed at him again. "You   
said you could make it stop."

"I will." She replied. "But being difficult is not going to help. Go ahead." She   
nodded to Nurse Adams who had appeared with a syringe of Morphine.

Janet watched as the flow of the drug through his IV settled Daniel almost   
instantly. Eyes drooping closed, his breathing evened out to a slow, steady rise and fall   
of his chest as the narcotic pushed the pain down to a much more tolerable level. No   
longer panting for air he relaxed completely, though the medical staff around him   
remained tense. For the moment he was calm, but his behavior could change again   
without warning. 

Still focused on the continued flow from his nostrils, Janet added a third layer of   
gauze and rested the ice pack low on his forehead covering the bridge of his nose.   
Nosebleeds with migraines weren't uncommon, but the fact that it was a new symptom   
had her concerned. Things appeared to be getting worse. She wouldn't be able to   
determine if this headache had been worse than the last one until Daniel was in the   
mood to be cooperative. However, if the last episode was anything to go by, when he   
finally returned to something more closely resembling normal he wouldn't remember   
much. 

The blackouts were another twist that made it seem less and less like a garden   
variety migraine and more like the effects of some kind of foreign substance. The   
question was, did this mystery substance have the ability to reassert itself at will or had   
Daniel somehow been re-exposed? The possibility that he had brought the obviously   
harmful material back with him had Janet planning an immediate conference with   
General Hammond. Until they could conclusively prove the substance was contained   
safely within Daniel's body it was probably a good idea to seal off his lab and quarantine   
everything he had brought back from P87T15. The last thing she needed was an   
epidemic of headaches that produced violent behavior. 

With Daniel's pain lowered considerably by the Morphine, dragging his blood   
pressure down with it, the nosebleed finally stopped seven gauze pads later. Snapping   
off her gloves Janet took his pulse one last time, made a note in his chart and checked   
his IV.

"Check his vitals every thirty minutes. He shouldn't need oxygen, but if he does   
don't use the cannula. Find a mask. I don't want to risk setting off the nosebleed again."   
She ordered on her way out the door. "I'll be in Hammond's office if you need me. Let   
me know if anything changes."

 

XXXXX

 

Daniel came awake slowly unaware of anything, but the groggy feeling that clung   
to him. Struggling to open his eyes he came face to face with a dimmed array of lights   
overhead. He was in the infirmary. His mind slowly, almost reluctantly turning, he tried   
to remember how he'd gotten there and why. Attempting to lift his hand to brush a   
strand of hair from his face Daniel felt his arm jerk against the restraint and instantly he   
was wide awake. Raising his head from the bed he found himself once again securely   
strapped to the gurney and groaned. It hadn't been just a dream, had it? Janet really   
had released him and he really had spent the night in his lab, hadn't he? It had certainly   
seemed real enough. Cold dread trickled through him at the notion that if it hadn't been   
just a very vivid dream then something had happened. Something bad. Something he   
couldn't seem to remember. 

Twisting against the tethers on his wrists he struggled briefly, knowing it wouldn't   
do him any good. His stomach folded into a tight ball at the realization that he was going   
to be spending more time in restraints. He couldn't take another session spent coaxing   
himself from one second to the next, wrestling against the panic. Not when tremors of   
terror still clung to him from the last time.

"Janet." He croaked, obvious fear in his tone. "Janet!"

"Is everything alright, Dr. Jackson?" Came a concerned reply of a nurse who   
strode hurriedly through the door.

"Where's Janet?"

"She's with a patient. Can I get you something?"

"Get me out of these." He said, lifting one arm as far as he could, which wasn't   
very far at all.

"I'm sorry. I can't. Dr. Frasier's orders."

"I need to get up." He insisted, heart pounding in his chest as the claustrophobia   
set it. "Please, just let me out of these."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson." She shook her head. "I can get you whatever you need,   
but I can't release you."

"Then get me Janet." He panted.

"I'll send her in as soon as she's available. Just try to relax."

"I can’t relax!" He snapped. "Look, I'm sorry. I just…I can't stay in these.   
Please."

"Everything alright in here?" Asked another nurse who had apparently heard the   
racket from the hall. 

This one he recognized, though at the moment he was having trouble   
remembering her name.

"He wants out of his restraints." The first nurse wearing a nametag that said   
"Wilson" informed her.

"He gets a bit panicked in them." Nurse Adams explained to her colleague. "Just   
try to relax, Dr. Jackson." She soothed. "Can I get you a drink of water?"

"No. Just get Janet."

"I'm sorry, but she's in the middle of a procedure. She'll be here in a few   
minutes. Try taking a couple of deep breaths."

Daniel panted out a deep breath or two, but it didn't help.

"Why don't you tell me about the project you're working on?" She suggested. "I   
hear you brought back a truckload of artifacts."

Daniel knew what she was trying to do. She wanted to get him talking about   
something else, anything to take his mind off the fact that he was strapped down.   
However, there was no topic known to man that would distract him that much. He didn't   
want to chat politely about his latest project. He didn't want to discuss artifacts or lost   
civilizations or goa'uld or anything else. He just wanted them to let him go. 

"I really don't want to talk about it right now." He said. "I just want you to get   
these things off me."

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

"Then get Janet." He insisted yet again.

"She's…"

"Busy." He finished for her. "I know."

The longer the useless conversation went on the more frustrated and angry he   
became. That piled on top of his growing panic made it very hard to be civil and   
impossible to be friendly so in an effort to avoid saying something he would regret he   
clamped his mouth shut and stopped talking altogether. In the back of his mind he knew   
ignoring her would very likely hurt her feelings, but it was better than having the choice   
phrases that were running through his head come sliding out of his mouth. He wanted   
her to undo the restraints. If she wasn't willing to do that then he wanted her to get Janet   
so he could at least attempt to convince her to do it. If she couldn't get Janet then he   
wanted her to go away.

After several more failed attempts to engage him in conversation Adams finally   
gave up and left him alone with the repeated promise that Janet would make an   
appearance as soon as she could. Daniel nodded and closed his eyes, willing his mind   
somewhere else. He tried to imagine he was lying on his own bed in his apartment   
napping his way through a lazy afternoon. When that didn't work he tried pretending he   
was lying on a dune on Abydos, the warm sand cradling him, a blue sky overhead. The   
vision very nearly calmed him until a twitch of his arm renewed the sensation of stiff   
leather gripping his wrist and instantly the sand dune became a darkened lair. The   
restraints were once again restraints and he was a prisoner. His eyes flew open, the   
knowledge that he wasn't a prisoner, but a patient being held against his will in Janet's   
infirmary did very little to slow his racing heart. While she wasn't going to carve him up   
or torture him with some horrid goa'uld device she also wasn't going to let him go despite   
the walls closing in and the fact that he was starting to hyperventilate. 

 

XXXXX

 

Janet was informed by no less than three nurses that Daniel had been asking for   
her. She had barely stepped out of the O.R. and was still dressed in her surgical scrubs   
when a steady string of people explained to her that he was awake and none too happy.   
Deciding against taking the time to change back into her uniform first, she headed   
directly for his isolation room. 

The fact that Daniel was upset didn't surprise her. She hadn't expected him to be   
thrilled when he returned to his senses to find himself firmly secured to a gurney for the   
second time in 24 hours. He had barely recovered from the first session and here he   
was being forced to suffer through it all over again. She fully expected him to be angry   
and half in a panic, though she didn't intend to tell him how close he had come to being   
held in restraints for the duration. 

Hammond had been much less than happy, himself, to hear of Daniel's sudden   
and quite unexpected relapse. Not to mention once again being combative enough to   
warrant being strapped to the bed and held under guard. The General had initially   
ordered Daniel tied to a gurney for however long it took Janet to figure out exactly what   
was going on. Days, weeks, he didn't care. It had taken her several long moments to   
convince him that with Daniel's reaction to being restrained it would be considered cruel   
and unusual punishment. The argument had been hard won, but finally she had   
managed to convince him that this wasn't really a relapse of the sarcophagus addiction.   
So far he hadn't harmed any one and the guards were having no trouble controlling him.   
In the end it was decided he would remain in restraints until she was certain the episode   
had passed and then he was to be under constant guard until Janet could figure out   
what was going on with him. She wasn't thrilled with the idea of him being treated like a   
criminal, but it was better than the alternative.

Still wearing the comfortable tennis shoes she used for standing during the   
sometimes long hours in surgery, Janet was able to slip silently into the room, nodding to   
the guards stationed just outside the door. Daniel was exactly where she had left him,   
spread eagle on the gurney, body securely held to it and his eyes closed. However, as   
she moved closer it was easy to tell he was no longer asleep. His face was pinched into   
a scowl; eyes squeezed shut, his body trembling.

"Daniel." She said quietly, not wanting to startle him, but knowing in his current   
state it was probably impossible not to.

Instantly his eyes snapped open revealing a look that could only be described as   
terror, one that managed to settle only as far as garden variety fear when he recognized   
her.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, gently gripping his hand, one that was cold   
and damp with sweat.

"Can you undo these?" he asked immediately. "Please. I won't hurt anyone. I   
promise."

"Not yet, Daniel." She said, hating the desperation in his face. "I'm sorry, but not   
until I'm sure everything is back to normal. We'll do another blood draw like we did the   
last time and if it looks good then I can let you go."

"Please." He begged. "I can't…I can't do this." His breath once again coming in   
panicked gasps.

"You're perfectly safe here, Daniel." She soothed, still gripping his hand.   
"Nothing's going to happen to you. There are guards at the door to protect you and the   
walls aren't going to collapse. Everything is fine."

"I can't b-breathe." He complained. "Please, just let me up."

"How about a compromise?" She suggested. "I'll undo your ankles, alright?"

He nodded eagerly.

"Ok." She said letting go of his hand and moving toward his feet. "Why don't I get   
you some oxygen to help you breathe? How about that?" she asked as she undid the   
tethers at his feet. "It's been a couple of hours since the nosebleed so you should be ok."

"Nose-nosebleed?" He asked.

"Mmm hmm." Janet replied keeping her voice low and calm as she gently rubbed   
at his newly freed ankles. "You had a pretty severe nosebleed this time."

"I don't remember."

"What do you remember?" she asked, returning to his side.

"I was, uh, I was in my…in my quarters. I fell asleep at the, uh, table. I, uh…I   
laid down in bed, but my head hurt. Then it-it got worse."

"Was it worse than the first time?" she asked, carefully winding the plastic tubing   
around his face before settling the cannula inside his nostrils.

"Maybe a little. I don't…I don't really remember."

"Did you eat or drink anything out of the ordinary while you were in the cave?" 

"No. Just water and MRE's. Maybe…maybe a few protein bars."

"You're sure you didn't eat any of the local food?"

"There wasn't any." He replied simply, his gasping for air suddenly increasing.   
“Take it off.” He panted. “I can’t…it’s too…” He cried, shaking his head in an attempt to   
dislodge the oxygen tubing.

“Easy, Daniel. Alright, it’s off.” Janet soothed removing the tubing, confirming her   
suspicions that it would only make him worse. A mask wasn’t going to be any better so   
for the time being he was going to have to do without oxygen. "You definitely got into   
something." She continued. "Your tox screen showed a significant amount of some kind   
of foreign substance that I don't have a name for in your system." Janet admitted   
noticing that his trembling had subsided and his breathing was a little less strained now   
that half his body was free of the restraints. "I'm going to draw some more blood." She   
said. "I'll do another tox screen and we'll see how things look now that you're feeling   
better."

"Can you undo these first?" he asked, tugging at his restraints.

"I'm sorry, Daniel. Not yet."

"Please?" He begged miserably.

"Soon." She assured him stroking his arm. "Just hang on a little while longer.”

He nodded, his face screwed into a mournful grimace.

Janet truly hated having to restrain him when she knew what it did to him. Still,   
no matter how much he begged and pleaded she couldn't afford to let him up until she   
was absolutely certain he was back to normal. Another aggressive episode and she   
wasn't sure she could talk Hammond out of giving the order to put him in mobile   
restraints and confine him to a holding cell. The man's patience was very nearly at an   
end. Daniel's wasn't far behind. 

Drawing enough blood to fill a new collection of vials, Janet taped a folded gauze   
pad to the fresh hole in his arm, patted him gently and headed for the lab.

 

XXXXX

 

Sam tucked her shirt into her Air Force issue pants and closed her locker. The   
mission to P59228 had been pleasantly uneventful. Nothing exciting, nothing life   
threatening, just a deserted planet that had willingly donated several plant and soil   
samples and then allowed their team to return back through the gate without incident. It   
had hardly been worth the post mission physical or the five-minute briefing to tell   
General Hammond they had found nothing of any interest. Still, uneventful and boring   
was a nice change of pace now and then.

With the mandatory post mission procedures out of the way Sam was free to go   
about her business. However, despite the projects stacked on her desk waiting for   
attention she ignored the temptation to hole herself up in her lab and instead headed   
back to the infirmary. 

Janet had told them about Daniel's mysterious relapse and admitted that he was   
currently strapped to a gurney struggling through what was for him a very difficult   
observation period. Rather than spend her time staring at her computer screen Sam   
decided to donate it to attempting to keep him entertained. 

Striding into his room and making no effort to be quiet about it, she found him   
stretched out on the gurney, sturdy leather cuffs around his wrists and a wide strap   
around his middle. His legs, which were free of the restrains, were pressed tightly   
together, one foot crossed over the top of the other, bare toes curled tightly. At the   
sound of her approach his eyes opened instantly, fear turning to miserable   
disappointment when he recognized her. While she was a familiar face she wasn't the   
one who could turn him loose.

"Hi." She offered striding up to his bed.

"Hi." He mumbled.

"How are you feeling?"

"Ok…I guess."

"Janet said your headache came back."

Daniel nodded.

"Sorry." She offered, taking his hand and feeling him squeeze it instantly.

"Can I get you anything?"

"No. Thank you." He replied, his voice tight.

"You didn't miss much on the mission." She informed him, searching for things to   
say. "The place was deserted."

He nodded and Sam fell silent, suddenly wishing she were better at small talk.  
"So…find anything interesting on that mission with SG-10? I mean, not that   
you've really had much time to go over anything since you got back."

"A few things." He admitted. "But I, uh, haven't re-really gone through it yet.   
Barely started."

Sam nodded back at him reading the tension in his body, hearing it in his voice,   
feeling the slight vibration of it as he held her hand and wished there was something she   
could do. 

"How are Teal'c's chess lessons going?" She asked, digging through her brain   
for something, anything to talk about other than the weather.

"Fine."

"I'd bring a board down and play with you, but…" She gestured toward his   
tethered hand.

"It's ok." He replied. "I don't think I could, um, concentrate very…very well."

Sam fell silent once again, growing frustrated with herself. She had never had   
any trouble passing the time chatting with Daniel before and now suddenly she couldn't   
think of anything to say. 

"I was thinking I'd come down here and keep you entertained, but I don't seem to   
be doing a very good job." She admitted. "Maybe I should just let you rest." 

"No." he replied immediately. "Please…don't go."

"Alright." She answered, stroking his arm, attempting to sooth the look of panic in   
his eyes. "I can stay for a while."

"I'm sorry I'm, uh, not very good, um, company."

"It's ok." Sam smiled. "You don't have to be. We can just sit here."

"Maybe you can…can, uh, tell me about what…what you're working on." He   
offered.

Eager to share news of her latest projects she immediately launched into an   
explanation attempting to keep it simple. After all, she wanted to entertain him, not   
overwhelm him. While Daniel normally didn't have trouble keeping up with her, at the   
moment he wasn't exactly himself.

 

XXXXX

 

Daniel strode through the halls rubbing compulsively at his wrists. Janet had   
finally let him go when the most recent test results came back normal. Even the mystery   
substance in the tox screen had disappeared, apparently having been broken down in   
his body. According to Janet the fact that it had dissipated so quickly was good news   
because unless he was somehow re-exposed he most likely wouldn't be suffering from a   
second relapse. How he had ended up with a first relapse was still a mystery. One she   
intended to solve by quarantining his lab and testing everything in it. 

Daniel didn't share her curiosity over the mystery substance that had somehow   
ended up in his blood. It was nice to know he most likely wouldn't have to spend any   
more time in the infirmary now that it had cleared his system, but he was more   
concerned about his lab than his body. He hadn't spent two solid days on P87T15   
piecing together the remnants of an entirely new society of people just to have it put in   
cold storage for what could end up being months on end. In light of what had happened   
he could understand Janet's borderline paranoia and he was perfectly willing to be   
barred from his own workspace if it helped her, but only as long as he could take a few   
of his less hazardous things with him. His notebooks were already in his quarters, but   
there were a few other things he wanted to study sooner rather than later, which meant   
he needed to hide them before Janet put her plan into action. 

Grabbing a half-full storage box he removed the books and old reports piled in it   
and layered the bottom with a handful of carefully chosen artifacts. He didn't need   
everything, just the few that contained writing. The rest he could do without for the time   
being. Resting the books carefully on top of them, he added his camcorder and the   
collection of tapes before replacing the top on the box and heading out of the room.

He was only a few steps down the hall when a pair of guards found him and   
informed him they'd been ordered by General Hammond to keep an eye on him…just in   
case. They also explained that effective immediately his lab was off limits, the room   
having been quarantined by order of Dr. Frasier. As a result, any and all off world   
artifacts were to be surrendered immediately. Luckily he had suspected as much.   
Carefully removing the lid to the box in his arms one of the guards inspected its contents   
and, finding nothing threatening about videotapes and a stack of books and papers, he   
closed it up again. Daniel continued to his quarters relieved that his haphazard plan had   
been successful, but more than a little annoyed at the notion that he was being treated   
like a prisoner. Without a word he pushed the door to his room open with his free hand   
and closed it again in the guards' faces leaving them out in the hall.

With a frustrated sigh he set the box carefully on his table, the notion that he was   
still confined to the base wearing on him. It was better than being tied to a gurney, but   
not by much. He didn't want to be anywhere near the infirmary for a few days. The   
thought that there was a section of the building filled with restraint bearing beds only two   
floors above him was suddenly very nerve wracking. In fact, the SGC itself was starting   
to feel confining. He needed open space and a few windows, something not encased in   
concrete and preferably not 30 floors underground. Daniel jerked the train of thought to   
a halt before the notion of earthquakes and collapsing buildings could settle into his   
thoughts. 

Normally he had no problem with confined spaces. He’d spent half his career in   
them, but the continuing sessions in restraints were inspiring a nasty case of   
claustrophobia. What he wanted at the moment was to be back in the familiar   
surroundings of his own apartment without anyone threatening to cart him off and strap   
him down or following him from room to room as if he were a convicted felon.

Daniel had no idea at what point Hammond had decided he was a threat to   
security and was tempted to slide into a determined bout of self-righteous indignation.   
However, after a few minutes of fuming in the limited confines of his room he reluctantly   
admitted he couldn't exactly blame him. It hadn’t really been all that long since the   
sarcophagus addiction had sent him running amok, attacking people at random, even   
going as far as attempting to put a bullet in Jack and here he was stirring up trouble yet   
again. He knew Hammond didn't completely trust him and despite the fact that no   
disciplinary action had been taken after what was now known as “the sarcophagus   
incident”, Daniel was also very aware that he hadn't exactly been forgiven for it either.

While the General had been willing to allow that Daniel's behavior had been the   
direct effect of an alien device's influence, he had been much less than thrilled about   
having his compound turned into a zoo. Especially by a team member he wasn't   
convinced they couldn't live without and he certainly wasn't willing to let Daniel off the   
hook for getting himself into the mess in the first place. In fact, if it hadn't been for Jack's   
insistence that he be allowed to return to SG-1, Daniel was certain he would have found   
himself out on his ear months ago or at the very least confined to his office in a nice,   
quiet, low risk desk job. One that kept him tucked away in a dark corner, out of sight and   
very nearly out of mind. 

As it was, Hammond still tended to look on him with suspicion, and from Daniel’s   
point of view, something close to disgust. Obviously this last episode in the infirmary   
hadn't helped. Judging solely by the fact that he was now under constant guard, any   
hopes he might have had of things returning to normal sometime in the near future had   
apparently just been squashed. Despite any contributions he might have made to the   
program in the past it was now a case of “what have you done for us lately?” and,   
unfortunately, the answer wasn’t affirming. He was back to square one: being seen as a   
liability, a free roaming hazard just like his first days back on Earth after returning from   
Abydos. He was once again “just a civilian”, meddling in a military operation.

Attempting to find a lighter side to the dark and depressing situation he had   
stumbled into, Daniel lifted the lid off the box, concluding to himself that his fish were   
going to be long dead before he was allowed to set foot in his apartment again.   
Deciding the notion wasn't all that funny after all, he gathered the collection of   
videotapes and settled behind his desk seeking solace in his work.

 

XXXXX

 

It was long after midnight when Daniel ventured out of his quarters in search of   
food. He had gone over his printouts of the videotapes three times adding to his notes   
and comparing his early speculations made in the cave with what little he'd been able to   
piece together since leaving P87T15. So far he'd concluded that the group had   
similarities to several ancient Earth cultures, something that didn't surprise him.   
However, they were indeed an individual culture. What they weren’t, it appeared at first   
glance, was advanced enough to give Earth any kind of advantage over the goa’ould.   
Of course, it was far too early for him to officially make that determination. It was   
possible he was looking at the ancient remains of a society that had evolved into   
something much greater. Not that it mattered, he continued to muse. Whoever they   
were and whatever they might have become, they were also long gone, which meant   
anything he might discover where they were concerned would be of little interest to Jack   
or General Hammond.

Striding through the halls, being led to the commissary by his stomach, his mind   
was completely occupied with his thoughts as he turned things over, twisting them   
around in his head like a Rubic’s cube, searching for viable conclusions. The soldiers   
who had been predictably present outside his door were very nearly forgotten as they   
trailed behind him. 

If Daniel had been paying any attention he might have been annoyed by their   
determined footfalls behind him, echoing down the deserted corridors. Or possibly even   
mildly aggravated by the looks of the few passers-by who were on duty at that hour as   
they tried not to stare at the condemned man with the zat-gun bearing escort. In fact, if   
he had been more interested in the things going on outside his head than inside it he   
might have been at least slightly puzzled by the realization that it was steadily creeping   
toward dawn and he wasn't even remotely tired. Despite the trauma of the infirmary and   
sleep over the last week that totaled less than twenty-four hours he wasn't nearly as   
exhausted as he should have been. It might have puzzled him even further to note that   
his endless supply of energy couldn’t be explained away by the caffeine level in his   
blood because he hadn't had any in at least a day. However, his mind was on other   
things: notebooks, videotapes, the few artifacts he had managed to hide in his quarters,   
the business of fitting together pieces of an ancient mystery.

Daniel finally managed to shake himself from his thoughts as he entered the   
empty commissary and headed for the small refrigerator full of various prepackaged   
snacks. The kitchen had closed long ago, but there was still food to be found for people   
who didn't mind convenience store cuisine. Gathering an egg salad sandwich, a small   
container of yogurt and stopping at the coffee urn for a warm, if not aged cup of coffee,   
more out of habit than necessity, Daniel wandered back to his quarters. 

 

XXXXX

 

The headache started mid-morning, the SGC a bustle of activity just outside his   
door. Rubbing at his temples Daniel got up from his desk, stretched and headed to his   
dresser where he had hidden the artifacts in the back corner of one of the bottom   
drawers, wrapped in a T-shirt. Determined to ignore the throbbing in his head, he   
carefully unwrapped the small collection and removed the one piece he had been   
puzzling over more than the others. 

It was a cone shaped artifact with a flat bottom and a rounded tip. Made of clay,   
it had been punctured in numerous places and covered in writings. He had discovered it   
in the remains of an ancient fire pit, almost entirely buried in ash. That fact that no   
matter how many times he handled it he still ended up with the gray powder on his   
hands led him to believe it had most likely been trapped in the pit for some time, the   
holes packed with the substance. It was possible the artifact was hollow inside and held   
a small store of ash. However, cleaning it out wasn't on his list of priorities at the   
moment. He was only interested in the writings that covered it and the fact that they   
seemed to relate to some of the inscription he'd taken from the cave walls. Leaving the   
other artifacts tucked safely in the drawer, he carried the cone back to his desk and   
returned to work.

Over the course of the next ten hours he worked almost constantly, eating little   
and ignoring any inclinations he might have had to sleep. Completely engrossed in his   
work he took absolutely no note of the fact that his headache had seemed to quiet on its   
own. Headaches were nothing new. He'd learned to ignore them long ago. 

It wasn’t until an insistent knocking at his door jarred him from his thoughts that   
he bothered to note how much time had passed, a quick glance at the clock informing   
him it was 20:00 hours, though he was no longer certain what day.

"Daniel? It's Dr. Frasier." Came a muffled voice from the hall.

"Come in." He sighed, annoyed by the interruption.

"The door's locked."

"Sorry about that." He said after prying himself from his chair and opening it for   
her. "I didn't want to be interrupted." He added feeling churlish and trying to hide it, but   
failing.

"The guards tell me you haven't been out in well over twelve hours." She   
informed him. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine. Just busy."

"Busy or not you still need food…and sleep." She added raising an eyebrow at   
him. "How long since you slept?"

"I don't know. I haven't been paying attention."

"Uh huh." She nodded "Can't say I'm surprised."

"I'm fine." He repeated.

"I was going to release you for active duty tomorrow morning, but obviously that   
would be a mistake at this point." She explained, hands on her hips. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. I'm just busy. I must have lost track of time." He said knowing it   
wouldn't get very far with her. That excuse never did.

Janet scrutinized him for a long moment, obviously trying to decide whether or   
not to believe him, Daniel struggling to control his temper. He had work to do and at the   
moment he didn't care whether she believed his excuse or not. Locking himself in his   
room to spend every waking moment pouring over a find from a mission was what they   
paid him for, wasn't it? He was just doing his job. Sometimes he was a little more   
zealous about it than others, but that was no reason to treat him like a teenager   
suspected of smoking pot in his closet.

"Ok, fine. I'll hold off your final evaluation for twenty-four hours." Janet finally   
informed him. "In that time I would strongly suggest you get something to eat and   
rediscover the concept of sleep because if you look like this tomorrow I'm going to have   
no choice, but to extend your medical leave. That means a report to General Hammond   
and I don't think either of us wants to have to explain to him why you're still not fit for   
duty."

"Not really." Daniel muttered, suddenly remembering why it was important to play   
by Janet's rules. 

She was the only thing standing between him and a very annoyed General   
Hammond. So far the man hadn't ordered Daniel to his office to explain himself in   
person and he had to believe that was due in large part to Janet's influence. He also   
hadn't been permanently pulled from SG-1 yet for behavior that was not only completely   
out of control, but apparently recurring. Most likely that was her doing as well.   
Struggling to shake himself from his self-righteous snit, he realized he owed her for that. 

"Good." She nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Ok." He agreed before closing the door.

Rubbing a hand across his face he turned back to the desk to see the cone still   
perched near his laptop in plain view. Cursing himself for being so careless and   
thanking his lucky stars Janet had been paying too much attention to him to notice what   
he'd left lying around on his desk, he grabbed the small artifact and tucked it carefully   
back in its place in the drawer.

Daniel stood for a moment stretching cramped muscles, the intrusion giving him   
time to briefly consult his stomach only to discover that he was indeed hungry. Pulling   
the door open again he strode out into the hall pointedly ignoring the guards on either   
side and headed for the commissary. The looks people gave him as he moved through   
the halls had him thinking that perhaps Janet was right about needing to take care of   
himself. After the third person strode up to him despite his armed companions and   
asked if he was feeling alright he decided maybe it was time to take a break. A short   
one. Just long enough for a quick catnap. 

 

XXXXX

 

Daniel lay curled in a tight ball under the sheets on his bed, his head held tightly   
in his hands, his breath coming in gasps as the pain raged in his skull. He knew the   
sensation. He knew what it meant and he knew what would happen if he called Janet.   
She would give him some drugs to make it stop and he would spend another session in   
restraints. Despite the inviting concept of painkillers he wasn't willing to suffer through   
any more time strapped to a gurney, not even with his head at its worst. Instead he tried   
to tough it out, but after little more than half an hour he was struggling minute by minute   
to keep from reaching for the phone. 

He had thrown up once leaving a mess on the bed he wasn't able to clean up, his   
stomach settling into convulsive dry heaves after that. Sometime between the retching   
and the ringing that had started in his ears his nose had begun to bleed again. When,   
he wasn't exactly sure. All he knew was things were getting worse and he was starting   
to think maybe it was worth time in restrains if Janet could make it stop. Hands clamped   
tightly over his ears as he held onto his throbbing head, Daniel didn't hear the banging   
on the door as the guards tried to respond to the groaning noises he was making only to   
find the door locked. 

 

XXXXX

 

Janet came sprinting down the hall toward Daniel's quarters to find two very   
anxious guards peering over a nervous Sergeant's shoulder as he fumbled with a ring of   
keys.

"What's going on?" She demanded, her small team pulled to a halt behind her,   
the call for a medic having summoned them moments earlier.

"Door's locked, Ma'am." One of the guards informed her.

"Is he in there?"

"Sounds like it." The other replied as another muffled groan escaped into the hall.

"Daniel?" Janet called, pushing past the guard and pounding on the door.   
"Daniel, open the door."

The Sergeant, whose task was made more difficult by his trembling fingers,   
finally managed to slide a key into the lock and with a welcomed "click" the door came   
open. Janet pushed her way inside to find the room dark, the unmistakable smell of   
vomit assaulting her. Immediately she flipped on the light and found Daniel curled on his   
side in a ball tight enough to have his chin nearly resting on his knees. His sheets were   
in a tangle around his feet and there was a mess of vomit and blood on the mattress   
near his head.

"Damn it." She grumbled to herself, instantly at his side. "Daniel? Can you hear   
me?"

His eyes squeezed shut, head sandwiched between his hands he made no effort   
to acknowledge her as he lay panting, his halted breathing telling her all she needed to   
know about his level of pain.

"We're going to move you to the infirmary, alright?" she informed him, waving her   
team closer and taking the opportunity to check his pulse. It was steady, but fast. Very   
fast. Concern and disappointment tumbled inside her. She had thought they had this   
under control. His blood work had been normal when she released him, but the scene   
before her was entirely too familiar. Most likely when she tested him again he would be   
the same mess of hormones he had been before. 

On her command the team attempted to gather him up and shift him to the   
gurney, blood still leaking steadily from his nose. However, after moving him mere   
inches Daniel began thrashing in their grip. At first she thought he had simply shifted   
into the aggressive behavior she had seen before, but as his jerking movements became   
more erratic she realized it was something else.

"He's seizing." She said. "Get him on his side."

Instantly the group changed gears and carefully settled him back on the bed, an   
orderly perched behind him to keep him from rolling over. Making no attempt to hold him   
down, knowing it would do more harm than good, Janet sat near his head as he rode it   
out. 

"It's ok, Daniel." She soothed, stroking his damp hair as he jerked and thrashed   
on the mattress, knowing he could most likely hear every word. "It's just a seizure. It'll   
be over in a minute. Just stay with me."

As quickly as it had come, it was over, Daniel settling into a limp heap. Instantly   
Janet had her stethoscope to his chest to check his heart, relieved to hear a steady   
rhythm and the continuous thunder of air pouring in and out of his lungs. 

"Let's move." She ordered. "I want him in the infirmary before that happens   
again."

As the group transferred him to the gurney with well practiced coordination Janet   
quickly scanned his room finding nothing out of the ordinary. At least not in plain sight.

"I want this room quarantined." She ordered the guards outside as the small   
group scurried down the hall to the elevators. "No one in or out until a unit has a chance   
to go through it."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Call a hazmat team." She ordered as she backed away from them in the same   
direction the gurney had just gone. "I want them to go over every inch of it."

"Consider it done." 

Jogging to catch up to her team Janet's mind was spinning a mile a minute.   
Daniel had been fine when she had released him. A bit traumatized by the restraints,   
but otherwise healthy. Unless the mystery substance in his blood had the ability to go   
dormant to the point of being invisible only to reassert itself at will, he had been re-  
exposed, which meant the source had to be in his quarters. According to the guards he   
hadn't been anywhere else, with the exception of brief trips to the commissary. With   
Daniel being the only one showing symptoms it obviously wasn’t something in the   
commissary.

Daniel was twitching and groaning when they rolled him into the isolation room,   
eyes rolled back in his head. He had been completely unresponsive since the seizure.   
Elevating the head of the bed, Janet didn't bother wasting time with gauze pads to stop   
his nosebleed. Instead she packed his nostrils with tiny rolls of cotton and clamped an   
oxygen mask over his face. As one of the nurses hooked him up to an IV Janet drew   
enough blood for another handful of vials with the thought firmly in mind that this time   
she wasn't going to bother to release him when he recovered. Obviously an hour of   
coherence wasn't enough to properly assess his behavior. After this she was going to   
hold him for at last thirty-six hours just to make sure. He would be bored. He would   
complain incessantly, but she was prepared to turn a deaf ear to it. This was the last   
time she wanted to be called to his quarters to find him in this condition. Besides, from   
the looks of things his symptoms seemed to be getting steadily worse with each episode.   
There was no telling what would happen the next time. God forbid there be a next time.   
What had started out as a migraine with accompanying nausea had just turned into a   
migraine with vomiting, severe nosebleeds and seizures. The next time around it could   
come with full cardiac arrest. 

With no signs of aggression coming from her still completely unresponsive   
patient Janet decided to forgo the restrains, at least for the time being. Taking   
advantage of his very cooperative state, she wheeled him to the far side of the infirmary   
for an MRI. Her suspicions still lay with the effects of whatever substance he'd managed   
to get himself into, but she wanted to check for any signs of a brain hemorrhage just to   
be safe.

 

XXXXX

 

Janet sat in her office staring at a very disturbing page of test results. Daniel had   
been unconscious for hours, not that she was entirely surprised. His nosebleed had   
taken nearly 45 minutes to bring under control and a second much smaller seizure had   
struck right in the middle of the MRI. This morning’s trauma, combined with the fact that   
he hadn’t had a decent amount of sleep in days, suggested that he probably wouldn’t be   
awake again for quite some time. Unrestrained and resting comfortably he was being   
watched over by the guards Hammond had ordered and checked on regularly by her   
nurses. In that respect she had no concerns. His test results, however, were a different   
story.

As she'd suspected his hormone levels were scattered helter skelter. They were   
either far too high or dangerously low, nothing where it should have been. Neither was it   
a surprise to find that the mystery substance had shown up in his tox screen again. The   
levels were higher than they had been the last time, which most likely explained the   
increased severity of his symptoms. Either re-exposure drew out the dormant bits still   
left in his body or he was finding a way to take in more of the substance each time he   
was exposed. 

One thing she didn't know was if his reaction was due to having entirely too much   
of the substance in his blood, causing a toxic response in his body or because the level   
was decreasing and he was going through a violent withdrawal. Had he been awake   
she could have grilled him for information about what he had taken, when and exactly   
how long it had been before the symptoms had started. Unfortunately, even if he had   
been conscious she doubted the interrogation would have done much good. In all   
honestly, she suspected he wouldn't have had any idea what she was talking about. If it   
had been a matter of him purposely taking drugs they would very likely have been the   
Earth bound kind, something her tox screen could have easily identified. Most likely   
whatever he kept getting into was from off world and she was willing to bet money it was   
something he had picked up on P87T15 without realizing it. Something he was   
continually re-exposing himself to with no idea that's what was happening. 

The theory she had been formulating for the past few hours was that his first   
encounter with the substance had been during his time on the planet when he had felt   
little need to sleep and ate only when a member of SG-10 took the time to toss him food.   
It was obviously some kind of stimulant that kept him running at full speed almost   
indefinitely. Leaning back in her chair, Janet stared at the ceiling letting her mind   
wander over what she knew of Daniel's schedule since he'd returned.

His first collapse had been several hours after coming back from the mission with   
SG-10. He had been wired during the physical, distracted, fidgeting, and unable to sit   
still for even a few minutes. Hours later he had been found on the floor of his office with   
the first headache. The other two had come after prolonged sessions working in his   
quarters. Obviously wired, unable to sleep and according to the guards during his latest   
work-a-thon, eating very little. Turning the information over in her mind Janet realized   
she already had half the answer to her question. She might not know what he was   
getting into, but it seemed his symptoms were the effects of withdrawal rather than   
exposure. The "high" must have come while he was working with whatever contained   
the substance, probably an artifact. The crash followed after he had put the offending   
item away and moved on to something else. Thankfully, the four objects he had hidden   
in his quarters had been found and were now safely tucked away after being carefully   
tested. The results weren't back yet, but she was fairly certain she would find her culprit   
among them. 

On the bright side, by the time they had reached Daniel during this last crash he   
had been so far along in his symptoms that any aggression he might have displayed at   
the height of it had been contained within the walls of his quarters. If anything had   
suffered the brunt of his wrath it had been inanimate and not likely to attract Hammond's   
attention.

The ringing of the phone in her office interrupted Janet's thoughts and   
immediately she snatched it from the receiver.

"Dr. Jackson's awake." The voice announced.

"I'll be right there."

Pushing back from her desk Janet strode out into the main infirmary and headed   
down the hall to the isolation rooms, Daniel sequestered in one of the smaller ones.   
Uncertain of exactly what she would find, Janet was relieved to see a still calm, quiet   
Daniel reclined in the same position she had left him in with the oxygen mask covering   
his face, eyes closed. If she hadn't been told he was conscious she never would have   
known it by looking at him. She certainly hadn’t expected it this soon.

"Daniel?" She called standing by his bed and glancing up at the monitor beside   
him that traced the steady rhythm of his heart. The blood pressure cuff that was   
programmed to automatically strangle his left arm on a regular basis displayed its latest   
reading on a corner of the same screen. Thankfully his pressure was down significantly   
from the 235 over 137 it had been hours before. 

Daniel grunted in response to her voice, a hand twitching.

"Can you open your eyes for me?" She asked, watching as his eyelids fluttered   
and two slits of blue eventually appeared. "Welcome back." She smiled.

Daniel responded by closing his eyes again.

"How do you feel?"

Whatever minimal response he had offered was muffled and distorted by the   
combination of a nose full of gauze and face still covered by the oxygen mask. Janet   
reached up and gently slid the mask from his face, letting it rest on his chest, the elastic   
strap loose around his neck. Turning off the flow, she repeated her question.

"Bad." He replied quietly.

"How's your head?"

"'S ok." He slurred.

"What feels 'bad'?"

"Aches everywhere." He breathed. "Tired."

"You had a couple of seizures." She informed him gently. "You probably pulled   
half the muscles in your body."

Daniel nodded slightly.

"Get some rest." She advised knowing a conversation with him at that point   
wouldn't tell her much. "We'll talk later."

He nodded again. Janet decided he could do without the oxygen for the time   
being and carefully pulled the mask over his head, setting it aside before turning to   
leave.

"Janet." He called quietly before she had moved more than a step from him.

"Yes?"

"Don't tie me down. Please." 

Janet looked back at him and was greeted by a pair of tired, but very fearful blue   
eyes.

"No, Daniel." She smiled. "No restraints this time. You just rest."

He nodded again, the tension draining from his face and his eyes sliding closed   
one more time as Janet gently squeezed his arm as much to comfort him as to make   
sure he was warm enough. Pulling the blankets up a little higher she left him to sleep.

It was halfway through the following morning before Daniel was alert enough to   
talk. By that time the tests had come back on the artifacts the hazmat team had found in   
his quarters. As she had suspected, the source of the mystery substance had been   
found.

"I think we've found the reason for your headaches." Janet informed a new fully   
awake Daniel, holding up a thick plastic bag that contained the small cone shaped   
artifact.

"That's causing the migraines?" He said, scowling at the bag.

"Not the cone itself, but what's in it."

"It's just ash." He said. "I found it buried in a fire pit."

"Not just ash, Daniel." She argued. "We identified a trace of ash on the outside,   
but most of the gray powder is something else entirely."

"What?"

"I don't know. Obviously some kind of stimulant." She shrugged. "Whatever it is   
it's nothing we have on Earth, but it's an exact match for what we've been finding in your   
blood."

"It is?" He stated more than asked.

"Yep."

"So…what now?"

"Now we retest your blood and if everything is normal you shouldn't have this   
problem again. That's assuming this substance doesn't have the ability to reassert   
itself."

"What if it does?"

"Then we've got a big problem, but let's not worry about that just yet. I'll keep   
you here for observation for a day or so. It seems to take about 36 to 48 hours between   
episodes so if you're still symptom free and your blood is clean after two days I'd say   
you're officially back to normal."

Daniel nodded, a scowl wrinkling his face as what Janet suspected was a string   
of "what ifs" came slinking through his mind.

"Don't worry, Daniel." She said, squeezing his hand and recapturing his attention.   
"Everything will be fine."

 

XXXXX

 

Daniel stood in front of the Stargate adjusting the strap on his helmet, the   
shimmering event horizon beckoning. 

"Everybody got everything?" Jack asked.

"Yes, Sir."

"Indeed."

"Daniel?" Jack asked.

"What? Yeah, I think so."

"Good because I'm not stopping half way there to pick anything up. This is a   
non-stop worm hole." He said, Daniel smiling to himself.

Janet had pronounced him fit for duty three days ago after a mind numbing 48   
hours held prisoner in the confines of his isolation room, the boredom punctuated by   
periods of anxiety as he waited for the results of the recurring blood tests. Finally the   
last set of tests had come back clean and she had turned him loose. General Hammond   
had confined him to the base for another 48 hours just to be safe, most of which Daniel   
had spent in a lab now completely void of artifacts from P87T15. They had been   
photographed extensively and then packed away in a crate covered in hazmat labels   
before being shipped off to Area 51 for safe keeping. Luckily, in the days before the   
cause of his illness had been discovered, he had spent more than enough time with the   
small cone to have taken extensive notes on the writings that covered it.

Now, standing in the gate room with his team, ready to embark on the first   
mission since things had turned completely upside down and sideways he had to admit   
he was a little nervous. He could feel Hammond's eyes on him from the control room   
and wondered how long it would be before he no longer felt scrutinized by the man. His   
hopes of putting the whole sarcophagus addiction mess behind him had just been   
derailed and he was starting over at less than square one. With two strikes against him   
in the space of a year he wondered exactly how much room he had left for error before   
the General decided he was more trouble than he was worth.

"Let's move out, kids." Jack announced, clapping Daniel on the shoulder and   
giving it a brief squeeze before clomping up the ramp.

Following Jack's lead he headed for the Stargate. Despite everything his team   
still believed in him. Jack still believed in him. As long as he had that things might just   
work themselves out…eventually.


End file.
